If I could describe what I see in this picture in just a few words, it would be “generic-looking Eighties coupe”. And the sad truth is that’s just how someone would’ve likely described this 1988 Oldsmobile Toronado Troféo when new, with the possible omittance of “Eighties”.

Once among the most instantly recognizable cars in the world, the Oldsmobile Toronado became more conventional in design with each successive generation and restyling. By its third generation and first massive downsizing in 1979, the Toronado had evolved from a radically-styled, show-car-like design to a decidedly more conservative, Brougham-y design.

The 1980s saw the coupe market begin its decline, but the release of the 1986 GM E-bodies is often cited as the most pivotal nail in the coffin, at least as far as personal luxury coupes are concerned. Received poorly by consumers, sales took a sharp decline and never recovered, with Olds’ Toronado garnering the lowest sales of all.

The Eldorado and Riviera, despite losing a lot, and I mean alot of buyers, still had some appeal when it came to their most loyal customers from before. The Eldorado, after all, was still a Cadillac and still the ultimate expression (at least in name) of personal luxury in an American automobile. There would always be those people who’d continue buying Eldorados no matter how visually unassuming they were, for the mere fact that they were “Cadillac Eldorados”.

Likewise, the Buick Riviera had its own core demographic of buyers (many whom I feel were little old ladies, and not young thirty-somethings who wore velour jogging suits) who wanted 90% of the Eldorado’s luxury amenities without the stigma and price premium of the Cadillac wreath and crest.

But just who were the Toronado’s buyers by this point? Traditionally, the Toronado had been a vehicle to showcase some of GM’s latest technology, such as the first post-WWII application of front-wheel drive in a mass-produced American car, Quadrajet four-barrel carburetor, secondary high-mounted stoplights, and a three-sided bent-glass rear window.

Yet by its third generation, the Toronado offered little in the way of uniqueness. Now sharing its platform with both the Eldorado and Riviera (the latter now also front-wheel drive), the trio shared the exact same wheelbase, basic body shape, and the same engines with minimal exceptions. Although each retained exclusive sheetmetal, they still looked an awful lot alike, and offered similar levels of luxury.

The Eldorado would always carry the extra snob appeal of the Cadillac name, placing it in a different league by default. As for the Toronado and Riviera, however, why someone would purchase one over the other largely lay in brand loyalty, preference of styling, or dealer incentives, as the two were essentially the same car wearing a different overcoat.

Which brings us to the fourth generation Toronado introduced in 1986. Losing over a foot in length and six inches in wheelbase, the Toronado suffered from the all-too-infectious “me too” mid-1980s GM corporate styling, that spanned from the cheapest Chevrolets to the most expensive Cadillacs, and nearly everywhere in between.

To give credit where due, Oldsmobile did restore some of the Toronado’s “high-tech” vibe, with blacked-out concealed headlights, aerodynamic ground effects, smoked full-width taillight lenses, the Troféo’s available thickly bolstered Strato buckets and “basket handle” gear shift selector, and a very driver-focused interior with that beginning in 1989 featured an available touchscreen Visual Information Center (VIC) with controls for radio and climate as well as various graphics.

On the outside, the Toronado eschewed its siblings more tradition styling touches such as chrome grilles, vinyl roofs, stand-up hood ornaments and thick chrome bodyside trim. In their place, Oldsmobile’s E-body coupe featured a flush black grille and concealed headlights for a full-width effect, and mostly black or body colored trim in the place of chrome. Toronado Troféos furthered this with no chrome sans the bumpers and monochromatic exterior paint, for an even more aggressive look.

Which brings me back to my question: just who did the Toronado appeal to by this point? Despite efforts made to bring the car up to speed and into the present with its techy image, so long as it shared its underpinnings with the current Eldorado and Riviera, the Toronado was never going to appeal to the ever important upwardly mobile younger buyer.

And before you cry out heresy for Oldsmobile’s the decision to not sell the Toronado with miles of chrome, vinyl roofs, opera windows, wood trim and loose-pillow seats, just take a look at its siblings. Traditionally selling in higher numbers, its not like they fared much better with the 1986 redesign, and they stuck to their same basic styling principles as before.

If I were to describe the typical 1980s Toronado buyer in my eyes, it would be a somewhat well-off male from a blue-collar background in his 50s or 60s. Right around retirement age, with kids grown and moved out, the Toronado was a car bought to enjoy, and something to show for years of hard work. With enough trunk room for two sets of golf clubs, the Toronado was a car with enough prestige to fit right in at the country club, yet not so much that its owners would receive dirty looks for using to make trips to the hardware store or haul bags of garbage to the landfill.

Even among the demographic that would’ve been most inclined to purchase a Toronado, the 1986-1989 car’s styling most certainly turned many of these buyers off. Although it was always the E-body with the least snob appeal, the Toronado was still a luxury car purchased to display one’s comfortable surroundings. But with the 1986 redesign, Oldsmobile’s most expensive model looked an awful lot like its compact Cutlass Calais which cost half as much — something even the mildest image-conscious buyer could be turned off by.

V8 power, a hallmark of past Toronados, and standard every year except between 1981-1984, was gone for good with the 1986 Toronado, replaced by a 3.8L Buick V6. At 140, horsepower was identical to 1985’s standard 5.0L V8, though at 200, torque was 40 lb-ft less in the V6. That being said, acceleration was quicker, with a 1.5-second drop in zero-to-sixty time, at 11.6 for the 1986 Toronado. 1988 saw the addition of a more powerful 3.8L V6 to both lines, upping horsepower and torque by 25 and 15, respectively.

The new generation’s improved performance was thanks to a 550-pound drop in base curb weight, resulting in a more favorable weight-to-power ratio of 23.6 lbs/hp versus 27.3 lbs/hp. Now of course, the fact that the 1986 Toronado offered substantially better fuel economy (19 city/30 highway/23 combined versus 17 city/22 highway/19 combined) was a far greater selling point, or at least it would of been had gas prices not at historic lows.

In many ways, the 1986 Toronado was actually a smartly-designed car. Objectively speaking, it offered better performance, increased fuel economy, and greater space efficiency than its predecessor. On a subjective note, it offered contemporary, understated styling, that walked the fine line of looking good either in European-like Troféo trim or with several of its available Brougham-like, albeit very toned-down and thus tasteful Brougham-like styling elements.

Of course, the overwhelming majority of prospective buyers did not want a Toronado that was “toned-down”, and those looking for a personal luxury coupe with understated styling, added performance and a enhanced technology were likely to be shopping in the showrooms of German brands or of Honda’s newly-introduced Acura brand, not Oldsmobile.

In practice, the 1986 redesign of the Toronado managed to alienate both its traditional clientele as well as any conquest buyers Oldsmobile was trying to go after. A few thoughtful improvements were made over the course of the car’s fourth, and ultimately, final generation. In an effort to appeal to import buyers even more, Oldsmobile added the aforementioned Troféo trim in 1987.

With FE3 touring suspension, thickly bolstered leather buckets, and monochromatic appearance, relative to overall Toronado sales, the Troféo was a hit, accounting forover 80% of total Toronado sales by 1992. Somewhat predictably, by 1989 the Troféo became its own sub-model, lacking the Toronado prefix and badging altogether in an attempt to further distance itself from whatever muddled connotation “Toronado” had at this point.

The most dramatic change came in 1990, where in a last-ditch effort, Oldsmobile literally tacked on nearly a foot of body to the car’s rear. Along with almost entirely new sheetmetal, this final update did give the car a decidedly more substantial appearance, as well as a more attractive rear end. Unfortunately, in this case size did not matter and it did little to reverse declining sales.

Production did jump up by about 50% for 1990, to a figure of 15,022, but this was negligible compared to the 42,185 final-year third generation Toronados sold for the 1985 model year, and sales sunk back to 8,053 Toronados for model-year 1991 and 6,436 Toronados for model-year 1992.

After three years in elongated form, Oldsmobile pulled the plug for good on the Toronado (and Troféo), ending the 26-year run of Oldsmobile’s flagship personal luxury coupe. By this point, Oldsmobile sales were at their lowest point since 1961, five years before the Toronado was introduced, and the brand was facing a severe identity crisis.

The Toronado’s siblings each received final full redesigns, the Eldorado for 1992 and the Riviera for 1995, in an attempt to win back buyers who found the 1986-vintage cars totally unworthy. Oldsmobile took the decidedly smarter route, and poured its resources into the 1995 4-door Aurora sports sedan instead, as coupes were no longer the preferred choice among the “personal luxury” demographic — the sports sedan had confidently taken over.

In short, the fourth and final generation Oldsmobile Toronado was a failure. Posting its best sales of just 16,494 units in 1988, total sales of this generation amounted to only 86,846 — a disappointing figure considering the Toronado sold 90,285 units of 1984 and 1985 models, the final two years of the third generation which dated back to 1979.

Although many may hastily point the finger at GM alone, the fact often overlooked is that all coupe sales were declining across the board. The highly disappointing 1986 redesign of the E-body contributed to this, but nearly every automaker was facing weakening coupe sales as a percentage of overall sales the 1980s progressed into the 1990s.

I attribute 80% of the final Toronado’s failure to GM’s downsizing and lookalike styling, and the other 20% to changing consumer tastes.

76 Comments

How clever GM would have looked if gas prices had continued to rise. Instead, they killed or maimed their golden geese. What really killed these E-Bodies was the styling: the designers wanted them to look compact and efficient. Why? Why not make them look just as grand as ever, and market them with taglines like “You can have it all” or “The best… made better” or “All the luxury and prestige you ever wanted, plus all the efficiency” and put that fuel economy figure FRONT AND CENTER. Instead, they made the cars much more efficient and well-packaged, but saddled them with dumpy, plain styling as if to reinforce how much more efficient these cars were. When has that ever worked?

Oh well. Hindsight is 20/20. For what it’s worth, goofy C-pillar treatment aside I find these to look quite sharp, inside and out. But ugh, imagine these styling cues on a bigger, better-proportioned body… Even the ’90 revision was a bit awkward because the buttlift improved the presence but not the proportions.

I guess GM could have made the ’80 Thunderbird mistake: tried to make the E-Bodies look as much like their predecessors as possible, and end up cluttering a small body with fussy details and fripperies.

True, GM was eager to show Coastal Critics demanding high MPG cars overnight in 1979, that “we can do small cars”. So, they made all the FWD replacements “look small”, and planned to highlight their interiors.

I have never understood those C pillars, the upright rear windscreens and the general proportions of these cars. Hideous in the extreme and just look what happened to that Tornado – from a stylish, individual look to an awkward mess – in just three generations? Why?

I test drove an 86 Riviera. The driver could see out of the drivers side rear window to see the blind spot. The 89 Riviera restyle made seeing the blind spot very difficult, if not impossible. So the C pillars were well designed for visibility, but not so much for style.

The ghastly C pillars on these cars look just ridiculous the proportions are all off they have a clown car look about them that just wont go away, Toronados of old had style and presence.
Its no surprise they failed only blind people could have put up with seeing it just to get in and drive it, another styling sin from GM.

While I’ve never owned one, I knew several people with them and to a person each one said they loved their cars. I had an opportunity in the early 1990’s to drive one extensively in New England and found the car to be far more athletic than I anticipated. I was still a young father back then and didn’t have the money for such a car. On top of it, a couple wouldn’t make sense at that period of life.

I think there were a few miscalculations in the launch of the E bodies in 1986. One, which was impossible to fix by then, was the radical downsizing of the entire line. Like noted previously, had gasoline continued to go up in price, these cars would have had a warm reception.

Second, the release of the N-bodies before the E-bodies, was a timing issue that could have been resolved. Most often the prestige car lines set the styling mode; the lesser cars follow. This was reversed in this instance, with disastrous results. To paraphrase Car & Driver magazine: “whoever came up with the formal roof idea should be brought up on formal charges…” Let’s face it, the severely chopped roof that was so outre on the 1975 Seville had been recycled so many times across the entire GM line up, that by 1986 it was getting tired. GM should have read the tea leaves better with regard to the “aero” look. I remember my initial reactions to the N- and E-bodies, great looking from the front, but another re-hash of the Seville roofline. Ugh.

Also, the middle of the Baby Boomer cohort was not interested in buying any big domestic coupe to demonstrate their “sportiness”. I had several friends who never bought another domestic car after their initial first car (I grew up in the midwest). As soon as they had the $$’s, they went for the Benz, the BMW or the Lexus. The German cars had a pedigree and the Lexus was the new kid on the block with a lot to prove. As much as I love these GM FWD coupes, that generation of E-body was not going to be competitive at all.

Different marketing with a different product? The Aurora? Great idea, but about 10 years too late. By 2001 the writing on the wall was apparent and in 2004 the end came.

One detail about the final redesign that I always found comical–lift-over height on the trunk was one of the worst ever. There was basically no cut down the back of the car (as on the ’86 – ’89) to facilitate loading. It was almost like a lid on top more than anything else…

Tastes did change mightily during this era, and while the coupe market shrank, it also fragmented. When these Toronados were new, there were so many other, better choices. For good looking, large American coupes there was the Lincoln Mark VII, Cougar and Thunderbird. For good looking, smaller and more efficient American: Chrysler LeBaron. For a trendy and stylish premium coupe, Acura Legend. The German high end offered the sleek and substantial Mercedes 300CE. Each of these offered advantages GM couldn’t match with their hodgepodge of look-alike, drive-alike boxy little coupes.

Mind you on the “big tank” car it is fairly academic because most of the trunk is taken up by the fuel tank, and the spare sitting vertically behind it. You have a little space either side for small luggage.

This Toronado also suffers the same ailment as the Seville from the same era – a rear axle that is too far outboard from the greenhouse. Not a surprise given the kinship, but it’s just awkward looking regardless of angle.

While I easily remember people from their mid-30s and up driving Toronado’s and Riviera’s of the 1979 to 1985 generation, seeing any 1986 and up E-body was too rare of an event to come to any conclusion. The only E-body I remember seeing with any regularity was a Riviera that belonged to a college classmate, a red hand-me-down from somebody in his family.

I’m going to hike to left field and say this: I will submit this is also the period of time when pickups as personal transport devices started to become more prevalent. With options like this poor Toronado, a pickup still offered presence but with the added dimension of practicality and breathtaking versatility that was no longer on tap in most cars.

Yes, so many of GM’s FWD cars from the mid-80s suffer that problem and it just looks terrible. The GM10 Cutlass Supreme is vastly better proportioned — I don’t love its concealed C-pillars, but it doesn’t look like collision repair gone terribly wrong.

The other thing that jumps out at me whenever I see the dismal 1980s GM designs is the magnitude of the damage done by the void in design leadership that happened after Bill Mitchell’s retirement. For decades, a great deal of GM’s success came from being a style leader. Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell may have been challenging to work with, and didn’t slink away quietly in corporate wars, but they (mostly) had a wonderful eye for making cars look good. Chuck Jordan had the talent (and ego and hot temper) to continue the tradition, but he was passed over for “go along to get along” corporate player. “Dilbert think” took over the GM design department, and cars like this Toronado were the result.

Boy, you’re not kidding! Is it any wonder why I hated everything GM from the late 1970s to the late 1990s? It was cars like this.

I believe that dark red was the only color the Trofeo came in, because I have never seen one in any other color. Either that or I mistook it for a similar Buick/Pontiac/Olds model…

I’m sure all the Chrysler products I owned during those years weren’t any better, but I felt they offered something better – or I was just a victim of Lido’s marketing.

In those days, as I saw more of my friends and acquaintances buying Japanese cars that I started looking at them more closely and began making comparisons and noticing the imports seemed to be better in many ways. The domestics seemed “clunkier” in some respects as to fit & finish as well as being sometimes less clean in design.

Oh well… here I am back in GM’s camp for over 12 years and quite pleased about it. Pretty much the same can be said about my wife and her 2002 Honda CR-V!

The reason Smith kept getting his bonus despite GM losing market share hand over fist throughout the eighties, through his clever financial wizardry, he was able to continue the long practice of paying the shareholders a dividend every year.

I’ve never been a huge fan of the Toronado, the only cars of the line ever appealing to me is the first couple of years of the first generation (before that big massive grille took over), and the first couple of years of the fourth generation, especially in Trofeo trim.

Yes, it’s anonymous compared to its predecessors, but at least it didn’t try to look like the previous generation Eldorado, something I despise the second generation car for. There was a trim, lithe look to it – ok, as trim and lithe as your can get at that size – and I’ve always found them quietly attractive.

The problem is that “quietly attractive” is not what an American luxury car should ever be.

Interestingly, it seems like there was some serious consideration to putting the Toronado name on what became the Aurora, which makes sense considering the Aurora’s styling nods to the original Toronado. Given the transition of the Grand Prix to four door, that wouldn’t have been outlandish, but the fact that they didn’t do it makes me think there were some unpleasant conversations about the Toronado name being “tainted.”

I know exactly who this car’s buyer was, at least one of them. A conservative Midwestern CPA of about 50 who traded in his 84 Olds 98 Regency, and with the kids out of the house was looking for “something more sporty”.

Oldsmobile had a huge amount of bankable goodwill after selling gobs of popular cars in the 70s and early 80s. As mentioned above, Ford and Chrysler sold a lot of coupes in the second half of the 80s. These cars were just such disappointments.

I lost track of the guy I knew who bought one. I saw him years later driving a Lexus.

That occurred to me too. I think Brendan was referring to the third generation, which was the slowest selling E-body of the time, but still sold in respectable numbers. The Olds faithful, of which there were legions in the early ’80s, were a great buyer base for the third gen.

I think most of the Olds faithful were absolutely bewildered by the fourth gen Toronado. I know I was. I was too young and poor in 1986 to be the buyer demographic, but I had no interest in that car whatsoever. I was driving an ’82 Delta 88 coupe (third Olds titled in my name) in those years, and my faith had swung to Ford – within a few years I was sharing a garage with my wife, and it was populated with an ’87 Grand Marquis and an ’89 Thunderbird.

GM does have some good product, but I still haven’t been back since the ’82 Olds graced my driveway.

These ’86 models were a complete swing and a miss. As others have stated, they were at least better differentiated from the N-body than the Rivera was from the Skylark/Somerset, but it’s still just a complete styling fail. I don’t mind the slatted front end but it also strangely recalls the Celica of a couple ears prior.

The ’91 restyle turned these into genuinely attractive cars. If one of those ever crossed my path I could see myself driving it. Sadly, far too little too late.

I’d have to agree with generic ’80s coupe, or at least GM coupe. The E-body / N-body crossover at GM was disastrous, the A-body, H-body, and W-body weren’t that far off either, but were larger and better looking. Geez, how many platforms was GM running at the time? Maybe 8 or 9 at peak? What a mess.

Unfortunately, the N-body Olds Calais may have been a better looking car than the ’86 Toronado. The black plastic trim on the subject car looked like cheap plastic in ’86, and looks no better 30 years later.

The ’90 refresh is a decidedly better looking car, and certainly a bit more distinct from its E-body brethren, but was way too late in the game for anybody to care. I had forgotten about the refresh, and my mental picture of the final Toronado, sadly, looks like the ’86.

-RWD T-body had just been discontinued, but Chevettes and 1000s could still be found at dealers next to the new FWD T-body LeMans

-V-body (Cadillac Allanté)

-Brand-new W-body coupes

-Y-body Corvette

And of course the GMT400 full-size trucks being produced alongside the older bodystyle (the “R/V” series), and the S-10/Sonoma compact pickups. The U-body minivan wouldn’t come out until late 1989 for the 1990 MY. On Wikipedia, “S platform” redirects to the E80 Corolla that was used for the Nova, so one may or may not consider that a GM platform.

What drugs were they on when they designed this car? To me this style always looked as if someone took an extended cab ute/El-Camino type vehicle and made it into a 2 door sedan whilst shortening the wheelbase. Weird.

It is late 1985. My Mom’s 1979 Riviera got totaled the day before Thanksgiving. We were now looking for a replacement for her beloved Riv. OK, let’s go to the Buick dealer – WHAT – that is the new 1986 Riviera? Are you kidding me? OK, let’s try the Olds dealer – WHAT – that is the new 1986 Toronado? Seriously? OK, let’s try the Cadillac dealer – WHAT – no, it can’t be – that is the new Eldorado?????

Mom ended up with a Jaguar XJ-6!

The ironic thing is that with the new models out for 1986, you could see the trend was once again moving toward smaller cars, and it did make the outgoing 1985 models seem like huge dinosaurs in comparison. It is just that the American luxury car buyer wasn’t ready for SUCH a radical change. Gone was the prestige and presence of the previous model.

Brendan, I usually agree 100% with your stats and assumptions of core demographics, but your guess that the 1979-85 Rivieras appealed to old ladies and not thirty-somethings is simply not true. In fact, the Riviera seemed to attract the most youthful buyer of all three E-bodies. A lot of 30-40 somethings wearing velour tennis outfits drove 79-85 Rivs, my Mom included. She even had a good friend that had a light blue 1980 Riviera and she was in her late thirties. The Toronado and Eldorado seemed to be the models more of the older crowd migrated to. I’m not saying older folks didn’t buy Rivieras, but back then they were definitely driven by the youngest crowd out of all three E-bodies. Maybe it was the Riviera’s distinctive grille or sportier styling, or lack of pillow-top seating that younger buyers liked (both the Toro and Eldo had pillowy seating – definitely an older person feature). I guess you could say the Riviera was the least Broughamiest of the three!

I can even remember back in high school (I went to a private one but I won’t mention any names LOL) there were quite a few moms that drove Rivieras. There was a 1979, white with a white vinyl top and red cloth interior. Another one was a 1981. It was a rare color, something like a salmon color with beige leather and no vinyl top. The third one I remember was a 1982. It was black, also with no vinyl top and red leather. I can still remember the moms pulling up to the circular drive waiting to pick their kids up. And because my Mom had one (and I am a car nut LOL) they really stood out.

My best friend’s Dad growing up (at the time in his late 40’s) also owned one. He had a 1980, black with a black top and tan leather. He loved that car and owned it for what seemed like forever. I think he had well over 200k on it when he traded it for a 1988 Lincoln Mark VII LSC.

Glad I could be of some first hand insight Brendan. Great write-up as usual, too.

I’ll second Tom C’s thoughts. My father bought a 1980 Toronado XSC new, when he would have been just about 40, if my math is correct. That period was the last for Oldsmobile being the “I Made It and I’m going Further” brand at GM. Dad was absolutely enamored of that car, and until the day he died he recalled it fondly. (Having become of driving shortly before the ’66 original came out, I suspect he thought of the Toro as something really worth owning, and he was indeed proud of that car.) After the mid 80’s it really was true that every GM car looked just like it’s platform mate, and could be outfitted the same too, so why bother buying up anymore? Brand image meant very little after that, but in the 70’s and into the early 80’s it was still considered a sign of success to drive an Olds. The Cutlass Supreme was the huge seller that it was because people aspired to an olds more than they did a Monte Carlo or Grand Prix, which were essentially the same car. But yeah, after the mid 80’s Olds and Buick really did become “Old Fart Cars”, mainly because the only people who were bothering to buy them were brand loyalists from a time when there was some distinction between them.

The photo on the homepage caught my eye first, before the headline. I thought this would be an article about one of the cheap GM N-bodies, so much alike do they look in a photo, without size references.

GM’s management must have been a real mess back then, and their product lines reflected that. These cars were ugly, shrunken midgets with no presence or style whatsoever, a huge letdown from the 1979-85 models. This along with terrible quality control caused GM massive market share losses during the 1980s. And today they are are but a shell of what they once were.

GM made way too many models in the 80s, I never found the 86 Toro unattractive, in fact I find it a brightspot for the nameplate and GM as a whole in the 80s, but the aesthetic was just too familiar and ubiquitous by 86. One thing I always thought made these stand out in profile was the curved beltline, but even that was recycled off the previous generation Riviera. And the N problem was big, I don’t know what they were thinking rolling out those lower priced formal coupes BEFORE the flagship formal coupes. Judged amongst the other Es however, the Toro has to win though, the 86 Riviera was the most dumpy by far.

As a kid in Europe there was thjis magic about American made cars.
The Buick Riviera from Corgi Toys was cherished by me so was the Mustang Fastback and the Toronado, we young kids would call Tornado.
I even had the Corgi Toys Camaro Mk 1.
But how GM slipped into ridiculousness, I mean the so called successors, they should have never made them but they had better moved to new undiscovered paths in the car industry.

It is a bit like the Golf, the first two maybe 3 ok 4 models were great, the Golf II was even one of the best cars ever made, but today I’d see no reason to buy a Golf, instead French automaker Peugeot make a far more exiting 308 and Renault the Megane which is a downright hit.
Those cars are not based or linked to any past design, but they started with a fresh piece of paper or computer !

Yeah, GM styling really lost their way as the seventies progressed. They got further and further out of step with the mainstream aesthetic. By this car’s time it’s like they were so determined not to follow anyone else’s stylistic lead that they didn’t care what the end result looked like.
Maybe that would have been sustainable back in GM’s glory days, but it was dangerous with a market share about half what it used to be and falling.

Not long after my wife and I got married (late 1985) my farther in law bought one of the “shrunken” Eldorados. Big Bob had just retired from a long career selling machine tools and as a result no longer had to make the eight hour drive to Detroit a couple of times per month. He was from the generation who strongly believed that a sales person should look successful in order to be successful and had owned a half-dozen Cadillacs through the years. I’m not sure what possessed him to buy the Eldorado other than he wanted a new car and this one said “Cadillac” on it. Not long after he purchased the Eldo we were at the inlaws for Sunday dinner and he was showing me his new car. I was trying hard to find something nice to say about it when Big Bob spoke up and admitted that the new Eldorado was a “complete and total turd”. He didn’t have the Eldo much longer; it was traded in on a Sedan de Ville. He eventually abandoned Cadillac and switched to driving Town Cars.

“I attribute 80% of the final Toronado’s failure to GM’s downsizing and lookalike styling, and the other 20% to changing consumer tastes.”

I actually think it was along the lines of 50-50. Yes GM made a bland replacement for the previous models of personal luxury coupes but by the end of the 1980’s the whole personal luxury coupe market was dying off. Ford was starting to offer the Taurus SHO, Nissan was calling their 89-94 Maxima a 4 door sport coupe (4DSC). Oldsmobile came out with the sporty Aurora. Then everybody started buying SUVs so the day of the personal luxury coupe was pretty much over. Most of the holdovers started to be called sport coupes.

Ah, an innocuous bland styling and sales disaster from the non-visionary duo of Irv Rybicki and infamous GM CEO Roger Smith which only accelerated the relentless death spiral of GM by alienating its existing customer base.

I’m old enough to remember when these cars were first launched, can’t recall ANY vehicles that were so badly received at their introduction (Perhaps some of the DaimlerChrysler era Jeeps come close).

Sad thing is that this Toronado isn’t all bad. The leather trim interior is nice and the detailing of the front end, taillights and side windows is attractive. Pity that they didn’t place them on a vehicle with the size and proportions befitting their position in the market instead of an N-Car lookalike.

Another great write-up, Brendan. I didn’t think the 1986 – ’89 Toronados / Trofeos were bad-looking cars, but I loved the ’91 restyle and thought it completely transformed Olds’ E-body into something that was genuinely attractive.

As I was reading your article and got to the N-body comparison, it made me wonder what a downsized, Grand Am-looking Grand Prix might have looked like. I am so glad that never happened.

The 1990-1992 restyle did give the car a much more attractive and elegant appearance. I’d be tempted to pick one up if a low-priced, excellent condition one were to actually be out there by some chance.

When the 1985 Grand Am was introduced, Car and Driver showed pictures of prototype N bodies with the elder name badges on them. GP/Cutlass Supreme/Regal. They looked like the eventual cars, just the names differed.

Only the ’85 Buick Somerset Regal had an old name, for a year, then Skylark. Original intent was ‘next gen G bodies’.

Back in 1980, C/D reported that the G’s would last until 1984 model year, and they were like “Oh my, they will be positively ancient by then. Gas will be 5 bucks a gallon!” But like the Caprice/Caddy Brougham, they got extended.

Chevy was to have an ’85 Monte Carlo N body, to share the Grand [Prix] Am roof, but got cancelled for the Beretta. So, the ‘Am got to have a ‘unique’ roof.

Wow…I’m thinking about what an N-Body Monte might have looked like, incorporating some traditional MC styling cues. The car in my mind’s eye looks ghastly. The Beretta, on the other hand, was (to me) one of the most inspired domestic designs of the late 80’s.

No shame in that at all. A couple years back I actually was casually looking for 1990-1992 Trofeos in either that pearl white or flame red as a possible second car. I much prefer the 1990-1992 styling.

We bought a new 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais, and it was nothing but a nightmare. The body looks similar, and maybe it was an E body. It had a Buick V6 that vibrated so much that I had to shift it into gear under the hood, and spend all Sunday afternoon putting the tiny bolts and screws back together under the dash to prevent under-hood shifting. Nearly impossible to shift under the hood with one driver. The rear strut rusted from the body. The timing belt let loose way ahead of scheduled replacement bending the valves at idle at a red light. The timing sensor went wild, and the dealer had it for three days for diagnosis. That sensor failed on at least two more occasions, and I replaced it myself. The window crank system broke. I could go on… No wonder GM went bankrupt.

I got to join some of the peanut gallery and say that I always had a fondness for the Final Toronados. While I don’t think the first models were anything to write home about, they at least looked kind of distinctive. When they redesigned in 1990, I thought the car looked genuinely brilliant, and was a proper successor to the originals, but by then it was too late. I know the benefit of hindsight is going to play into what I say next, but I feel like if the 1990 redesign for the Toronado was introduced when the car first came out in 86, it might’ve done better.

Oddly enough, I really wanted one of these cars when I was still looking for my first car, and came across a black example for sale in Los Angeles that had an impressive 300k on the odometer. Which tells me that either 1): The few owners who buy the remaining examples tend to take care of them, or 2): The basic mechanical components of the car are fairly rock solid (Which considering they use the 3800 engine wouldn’t surprise me.)

As bad as the downsized 1986 Toronado might have been in styling – relative to the Cutlass Calais – it was nothing compared to the Riviera/Skylark fiasco. At least the Toronado got hidden headlights while the Calais’ were exposed, making for a tiny bit of differentiation.

Is there a list of Roger Smith’s Deadliest Sins? Surely, the 1986 Riviera/Skylark-Toronado/Calais has to rank in the top five.

Yeah, that’s the CC I thought of when I saw the side-by-side Toronado/Calais ads. Smith pulled several lookalike styling boners but it’s hard to argue that the 1986 Riviera/Skylark debacle wasn’t Number 1, even beating out the Cimarron. In the long run, while the Cimarron hurt Cadillac’s prestige, the 1986 Riviera must have really cut into GM’s bottom line.

Evan with the hidden headlights, no one cared about the Toronado, anymore. Many former GM Personal Lux coupe owners moved to imports after 1987, or got SUV’s. If GM didn’t have good truck products, they’d be gone for good now.

What hurt Oldsmobile was that the opera window Cutlass Supreme coupes went out of style by ’87, and the strong association lasted until GM pulled the plug.

Try to sell the brands “all new cars” in late 90’s, with Intrigue/Aurora, and it was either “I’m not setting foot in an Olds dealer” or “they don’t look like Cutlass Supremes!” So, dealers put fake carriage roofs on them to sell to old timers, but ignored the rest.

The ’79 to ’85 or so Toronado is the best looking in my opinion, same with the Riviera of the same era. I think the ’72 Eldo is the best of that bunch but that same era Eldorado (especially in Biarritz trim) looks really good too.

It just makes sense-the Toronado and Riviera should be the near luxury Eldorado-with slightly different styling cues.

The feature Toronado? Aside from the hidden headlights, it could just as well be a Chevy or Pontiac coupe. Nothing terribly luxurious about its looks and honestly, the Calais looks more like the stubby Eldorado anyway.

Excellent write-up on a true dog of a car. I agree with many posts above re: the styling (especially that C-pillar), the whole Roger Smith era mismanagement, build quality, etc.

Which leaves me with one aspect: the name. I realize, because I can Google things, that “Trofeo” is Spanish for “trophy”, but it still seems like a weird name for a car. To me, the US automakers have always had a mix of cool and odd nameplates for their cars, but the odd names seemed to gain the advantage in the 70s-80s.

It all started with the Edsel, I suppose. But sticking to the subject at hand, why would Olds call their other coupe “Calais”? Seville, Montecarlo or Biarritz, sure. But Calais?? Have you ever seen that place? I guess it didn’t mean much to Joe Public from the US, but still, why??

They could have pulled a Cadillac Brougham ploy and just kept making the third generation with minor facelifts. It probably would have sold well for the rest of the 80s to the same demographic that bought it in 1975-80, but sales, like the Brougham, would gradually have tapered off in the early 90s as the personal luxury coupe went the way of the buffalo.

Really it was another situation where GM didn’t stick what what worked, and yet also managed to screw up embracing change.

As far as Toronados go I actually like the gunboats from Gen 2, just not the XTS.

In the late ’80s, I was driving a ’72 Mercedes W114 250 sedan, bought for a fraction of the price of ANY new car, with the style, prestige & quality GM could only dream about. Regardless of the make, GM, Ford, or Chrysler, except for perhaps the original Seville, to me all the ‘formal-roof’ bodies looked hideous!